When the nsw teachers federation discuss salaries, the amount teachers earn elsewhere is not discussed and has no bearing on how much they would ask for.

Yes, they have their own union. I have no idea how much each union looks at the other's pay agreements but compared to the public system when I was working the difference between the two was minimal and would alternate as to who was earning more at the time.

HOF - I'd be genuinely interested in finding out what the funding differences are between public and private schools per child. I've never come across any figures.

I can't tell you for this year, but I just turned in an assignment which touched on this and this is what I found from about 3 years back

"Between 1998-99 and 2007-08, government funding per student in Independent schools increased by 112% and 84% for Catholic schools. The increase for public schools was only 67% (State School Teacher’s Union Western Australia, 2011)."

Yes, they have their own union. I have no idea how much each union looks at the other's pay agreements but compared to the public system when I was working the difference between the two was minimal and would alternate as to who was earning more at the time.

When I originally said private, I meant more elite private. I don't particularly consider catholic schools to be private, well not in the sense I meant anyway.

A friend of mine used to teach at a Jewish private school and was on 150k

bigredv - Wow - that's a huge difference isn't it! Yes - lots of different types of independent schools. I haven't worked in the Catholic system so have no idea what their agreement is like.

del - thank you. I've just handed in an assignment and taking the night off - will have a read. I realise it's a little off-topic from the op. It's interesting that some of the more elite private schools get more then - I wonder if there is just as much difference between hospitals in lower SES areas compared to more affluent areas.

HOF - I'd be genuinely interested in finding out what the funding differences are between public and private schools per child. I've never come across any figures.

I do wonder though if private school funding was cut what the repercussions would be. Would there be more people leaving the private sector as they can't afford the fees? Then there would be more kids back in the public system, with more classrooms and teachers needing to be employed on that side.

As noted in the just released Productivity Commission's Report on Government Services 2014, while governments invest on average $15,768 per government school student in terms of recurrent costs, the figure for private school students is only $8546. The reality is that even though Catholic and independent schools enrol 34.9 per cent of state and territory students, such schools receive only 22.4 per cent of what state and Commonwealth governments spend on education in terms of recurrent costs.

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When we negotiated the latest agreement at my school we looked at all the schools in the area and their agreements. In fact you can search these yourself on fair work australia. I also compared cath ed to the agreement and ed qld.
There are some elite schools near my old school that they couldn't compete with. But independent private schools do look at agreements that are in place compared with enrollments and the amount of funding that school may get when negotiating working conditions and pay rate.

As noted in the just released Productivity Commission's Report on Government Services 2014, while governments invest on average $15,768 per government school student in terms of recurrent costs, the figure for private school students is only $8546. The reality is that even though Catholic and independent schools enrol 34.9 per cent of state and territory students, such schools receive only 22.4 per cent of what state and Commonwealth governments spend on education in terms of recurrent costs.

That's how it should be when you consider school fees.

Our most vulnerable and disadvantaged attend public schools. They need extra funding to close the gap.

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I can't tell you for this year, but I just turned in an assignment which touched on this and this is what I found from about 3 years back

"Between 1998-99 and 2007-08, government funding per student in Independent schools increased by 112% and 84% for Catholic schools. The increase for public schools was only 67% (State School Teacher’s Union Western Australia, 2011)."

That link provides a good discussion from a public school teacher's perspective of private vs public funding. Have a look at the graphs, some of the increases to wealthy elite schools is unbelievable.

The school we are sending DS to was one of those schools, if the government dropped the $8500 he would get in funding then I assume they would add it to the fees which would make it $24,500 per year for kindy! We could not afford that ( we are very much working class as are most of the families whose kids go to that school) so he would then cost the government $15,800 to send him to a public school that probably couldn't accommodate any more kids and is probably already under funded!!

So in theory it's cheaper for the government to have me send him to a private school !

As noted in the just released Productivity Commission's Report on Government Services 2014, while governments invest on average $15,768 per government school student in terms of recurrent costs, the figure for private school students is only $8546. The reality is that even though Catholic and independent schools enrol 34.9 per cent of state and territory students, such schools receive only 22.4 per cent of what state and Commonwealth governments spend on education in terms of recurrent costs.

Private schools get school fees from parents though, in some cases fees are significant.

You only have to look in my home town to see how well the private schools are doing. Brand new buildings every year. Rec rooms. Meanwhile our primary is stuck with a school of demountables. These are catholic schools too, no where in the league of PLC or Kings.

The school we are sending DS to was one of those schools, if the government dropped the $8500 he would get in funding then I assume they would add it to the fees which would make it $24,500 per year for kindy! We could not afford that ( we are very much working class as are most of the families whose kids go to that school) so he would then cost the government $15,800 to send him to a public school that probably couldn't accommodate any more kids and is probably already under funded!!

So in theory it's cheaper for the government to have me send him to a private school !

The real costs of educating a private and public student is pretty similar. The fact your school is charging so much more than what it costs to educate them is not the govt's fault.

Don't get me wrong, I do support funding of private schools believe it or not. I just don't support how much they receive, particular the elite ones.

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